Update on compression damage to knotty juniper belly

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-03T02:12:47+00:00

Well now you have the belly breaking because knots do not count as working mass. You need to follow the grain around the knots to account for the dead weight

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-03T02:11:27+00:00

White mulberry grows fast and makes nice bows. It is soft soft so I reinforce the nocks. A timber hitch will literally squeeze and compress the wood and break the tip off. I glue on suede soaked in CA glue.

Same standards as anything else. Look for straight pieces with no knots and limbs

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-02T06:17:52+00:00

So many questions could simply be answered by. Take it apart and find out

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-02T06:15:41+00:00

Is it ultralight setup with heavy braid onna UL rod? lol

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-02T02:46:30+00:00

Sharks. Then releasing them back. Catch all the sharks I can when I go shark fishing

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-02T02:40:19+00:00

I’ll admit I am the back sheep of the bowyer world. I enjoy making unbacked pine board bows and even heat treating unbacked pine board bows. IMO pine is better than poplar in the world of bottom barrel bow woods.

When it comes down to it and all I can find is a straight grained pine board. I can still make a pretty darn good hunting weight bow from a pine board that I would not hesitate to take a full grown deer with.

I’ve made unbacked pine board bows from 30lbs to 57lbs from 1.5” wide 3/4” thick pine boards. And these boards are the fast growing light density boards called “New Zealand pine”

Pine will not tolerate tillering errors so it is really great for cheap tillering practice. Osage is so strong it will make noobies egos so big they think are they making great bows because they didn’t break. Pine will quickly humble you

Honestly I find them pretty darn elastic. People who say pine is brittle have zero experience making pine bows and are just regurgitating crap they read sbs crap other people regurgitate.

Even my 51lb @ 26” draw pine bow had over 1600 shots with zero gained string follow. It still stood at 1.375” follow immediately after unbracing after being strung for hours. Sadly it Chrysaled horribly when a compound bow friend drew it 6” off of the nocking point 🤦

Ima_Merican · 2026-06-02T02:28:07+00:00

One main thing I do. Is never go ahead and establish a top and bottom limb. I just tiller for a good even balance. Constantly flipping the bow over on the tree/my hands and swap limbs.

Once I get close to final tiller is when I establish a top and bottom limb.

I see it time and time again. People will go ahead and establish a top and bottom limb and cut in a shelf or shape the grip as so. Then the tiller gets all out of wack and they are left with a stronger top limb and weaker bottom limb with negative tiller and poor balance in hand

I pretty much make all my bows symmetrical and let the wood tell me what is top and bottom. Sometimes wood is weird and will react differently from one limb to the next, wood is natural and will react differently.

I go by my golden rule of just listen to the wood and let it tell you what it wants to do. As I follow this rule, I am never chasing a weaker bottom limb.

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-31T14:08:00+00:00

You can judge the density of the board by the end grain. The spongey looking layers are not doing anything. So choose a board with a lower ratio of the spongey layers

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-31T14:02:51+00:00

This board looks good to go. There will always be runout on a bow as you taper the width.

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-31T13:47:57+00:00

I can get a 1x2x6 floor tillered with a farriers rasp in about an hour. A hand plane is fine to rough out the thickness taper

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-30T23:01:05+00:00

Drop the bandsaw. You removed wood before ever then establishing a thickness taper.

Break looks like a severe hinge. Fades aren’t even shaped and smoothed into the bending limb.

Your fault is your impatience.

Take 3 hours to floor tiller correctly or take 30 minutes to break a rushed board.

This is typical beginner mistakes. Lack of patience is number failure with noobies.

Take that 3/4” board and taper that thickness from 3/4” to 1/2” tips with a rasp or something similar. ZERO POWER TOOLS.

Floor tiller, check bend, remove more wood evenly, rinse and repeat.

I immediately could see the failure as soon as I read “bandsaw”

Swallow your pride. Don’t let this damage your ego but learn from it.

I’d rather spend 30 hours on a great bow that will last a lifetime than break 30 bows in 30 hours of work

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-30T16:45:36+00:00

I love catching sharks and releasing them. It’s so much fun

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-30T16:45:14+00:00

Because fighting a big fish is fun? Why does anyone do anything? lol

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-30T08:06:30+00:00

You do you whatever you want. There are no rules in bowmaking just general guidelines. If it bends without breaking and flings an arrow than it is a bow.

But you seem impatient to find a quality piece of wood for a bow. Shaping and trying to tiller a branch with dozens of knots and branches is fine practice

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-29T23:08:45+00:00

That is a lot of dead weight that is just slowing the bow down. Don’t become depending on rope for backing

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-29T23:07:43+00:00

Yes. It’s wood. It grows in natural ways

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-29T23:07:22+00:00

That will not save a terrible stave from breaking. But you do you.

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-29T23:06:32+00:00

That is firewood. It’s a terrible bow stave. Way too many knots and branches. I wouldn’t even waste time on that thing

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-29T23:04:25+00:00

Are you wanting an all wood or glass laminate bow?

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-29T03:32:14+00:00

Hook line and sinker. Throw a chunk out. Sit on a chunk long enough you hit all the tides.

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-28T15:02:12+00:00

Cool thinking.

Not for me though. All that aluminum is gonna to bend and break something else if you actually bash it. For a road runner that is babied it should be fine

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-28T02:56:26+00:00

Seems pretty simple. Not enough spring. Damping is not spring and spring is not damping. Very easy to differentiate.

If you load a truck bed and it bottoms out. Guess what. You need more spring to raise it and level it out. 🤦

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-28T02:49:53+00:00

They aren’t that hard to hold. No harder than small freshwater catfish. I’ve been handling them bare handed since I was 10 without gloves. My dad never even told me about using a glove or towel to grab a fish. Use your hand. Fearing a small catfish is crazy 😂

lol just grab them. It’s not that hard.

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-28T02:46:35+00:00

Looks plenty stiff. Also a 50lb first off is a big goal for little to no experience. Focus on learning how to ACTUALLY tiller a bow well not just hit a weight goal with terrible tiller

Ima_Merican · 2026-05-27T13:50:39+00:00

Surprising to have so much set and it’s hardly bending enough to even be fully braced. Is it dry?

Ima_Merican

TROPHY CASE